Ref 5. Northwood Cemetery Inspection Reports and correspondence (Feb - June 08)

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On 10th June 2008 I asked the Council for  Site Inspection Records for, Contract Review Meeting minutes,  any new documents/ records  covering the same ground and any correspondence between the Council and Enterprise plc  all covering the period Feb to June 2008. 

No documents  have been supplied. Their response  took over the 20 statutory working days.  LBH did not say clearly whether or not each of the various items requested were held by them - a breach of its duty to “confirm or deny”.

They claimed that the cost of “locating and retrieving” the information would exceed the statutory limit  of £450.  This is untenable as my request was for copies of existing documents.  I was not asking for any data to be extracted and collated. LBH failed to supply a copy of their cost calculations when asked to do so.

Public bodies have a general duty to provide “advice and assistance” under the Act.  When a request is refused on cost grounds Public Bodies are expected to be pro-active in advising how it could be be modified to fall within the cost criteria.  LBH have given no such advice.

Having exhausted the Council’s complaints procedure I have  submitted  a formal complaint to the Information Commissioners Office on 11th September 2008.  The ICO wrote to LBH on 19th September asking them to conduct a internal review within 20 days, reminding them of their obligations under section 16 to provide advice and assistance and suggesting they provide a breakdown of the costs.

LBH took till 3rd March 2009 to respond.  They reversed their decision to deny my request on cost grounds for the site inspection record I had asked for but failed to supply them and for the meeting minutes requested.  They failed to confirm or deny they held any new documents or records covering the same ground.  In the case of the correspondence I had asked for they maintained that supplying these items would exceed the statutory limits but failed to provide any cost calculations.  They have sugested I slim down my request so that it would be under the cost limit but have failed to give sufficient advice and assisatnce in this regard as required by the legislation.

On 27th May I heard from the ICO that the case would be allocated to a case resolution team but it might take several months before I hear anything!


Text of complaint to Information Commissioner
Letter From Information Commissioner to LBH